Federal Aviation AdministrationThe Federal Aviation Administration has closed airspace in El Paso for 10 days from WednesdayThe US Department of Defense said it had disabled drones being used by Mexican cartels when it shut the airspace over El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday night."Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace. The Department of War took action to disable the drones," a Trump administration official said after the area reopened Wednesday morning.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday suddenly ordered flights in and out of the El Paso International Airport to be halted for 10 days, causing shock and confusion.Saying the FAA had worked with the Pentagon to "address a cartel drone incursion", Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X hours later that "the restrictions have been lifted". City Council member Chris Canales, who represents an area on the southwestern side of El Paso, told the BBC that local authorities did not receive any advance notice or reason for the closure. El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson confirmed that they were not notified, during a news conference on Wednesday after the airspace had been reopened."We woke up, just like many of you, at midnight last night, one in the morning, to the text and the calls that we received that our airspace was shut down," he said."Our community was scared," he continued. "You just cannot do that." Medical evacuation flights were diverted because of the closure, he said. Another flight that was carrying surgical equipment "did not show up here in El Paso". Renard said he was still waiting to hear from the FAA, the "primary agency that made the decision to shut down our airspace"."The official reason – we're still trying to get that answer of why it was closed down here in El Paso and southern New Mexico," he said.Long-term airspace closures are rare. Since 2018 the FAA has cut airspace closures from an average of more than four hours per launch to just more than two hours, according to its web site. The restriction covered a 10-mile radius around El Paso, including parts of southern New Mexico, west of the town San Teresa. After the initial closure, El Paso International Airport said in a statement it was told "on short notice" to halt all flights and contacted the FAA for more information."The notice was published without any advance notice to local governments or to local air traffic controllers," Canales said. The cancellations were so abrupt that people reported being told by airlines that their flights were still scheduled, even after the FAA's announcement."Just called (United Airlines) about my flight this morning and they said it's still scheduled to leave???" one woman commented on Instagram early Wednesday.Some on social media speculated about broader conspiracy theories and wondered if the US was on the brink of war. "It is significant that the US shut down a major airport," Mick Mulroy, a former US Marine, CIA paramilitary officer and deputy assistant secretary of defense told the BBC."If the purpose was for counter drone activity related to cartel drones, it makes sense as the primary means to do so is through electronic warfare (EW)," he added. "EW poses a real risk to civilian aviation. Therefore it was prudent to do so."Mulroy said the alleged cartel drones were most likely being used for surveillance and "not anything offensive". Mexico's Ciudad Juarez is just south and west of El Paso, and US Army base Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range lie to the north.Fort Bliss is a military post focused on training and White Sands Missile Range is the country's largest overland testing range for missiles, rockets and advanced weapons. In Mexico's interior, cartels have used drones to drop explosives on rivals or security forces, and one cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, has a specialised drone unit.But along the border, drones are used primarily to help cartels gather intelligence and mostly for human smuggling operations."They monitor the position of Border Patrol agents and relay that to migrants to direct them across the border," said Parker Asmann, an expert in Mexican cartels at the Washington-based think tank Insight Crime. "It's about gathering intelligence, surveillance and doing reconnaissance."In the El Paso area, which Asmann called a "hub" for human trafficking, drones are a "newer" technology performing work that would have previously been done mostly by "spotters" in the hills.Drone activity in the area, however, is extremely regular, and it remains unclear why the reported incursion on Wednesday prompted a sudden and large-scale airspace closure.Air Canada suspends service to Cuba following aviation fuel shortagePilot praised after crash-landing faulty Somali passenger plane on seashoreCardiff Airport's 'unlawful' handout defended at tribunalAirport securityUnited States
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